RTE Concert Orchestra
The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is one of two symphony orchestras associated with Irish national broadcaster RTÉ (Raidió Teilifís Éireann). The group is generally oriented toward lighter music and introducing general audiences to orchestral music, but it has played a wide range of repertoire.
The RTÉ Concert Orchestra was founded in 1948 as the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra. It was a small studio group, performing what is known as light music in the British Isles (corresponding roughly to the easy listening category in North America), but has grown to 45 players and performs more than 80 live concerts annually in addition to radio and television broadcasts. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra performs a large range of repertory that has sometimes varied according to its principal conductor. Since the early 2000s, the group has performed a classical orchestral series that has often emphasized English music and has even premiered contemporary works and performed operas such as Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking (2007). The RTÉ Concert Orchestra has backed the extravaganzas of vocal stars, including Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and Kiri te Kanawa. The orchestra has a broad presence in popular music with an orchestral aspect and has performed seven times at the Eurovision Song Contest; it has had recurring appearances on Irish television's The Late Late Show and was featured on Dancing with the Stars, and has backed Irish vocal stars such as Sinead O'Connor. Jazz has had a presence in the orchestra's programming since its early days, and this expanded in the 2000s under frequent conductor John Wilson, who has re-created, performed, and recorded classic Hollywood film music. A 2021 project featured arrangements of the music of Aretha Franklin, arranged and conducted by jazz trumpeter Guy Barker. Light music has continued to have a part in the orchestra's programming; conductor and composer Lalo Schifrin has been a significant collaborator. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra has an educational component, performing 24 Music in the Classroom concerts every year, each to audiences of about a thousand students. The orchestra's present conductor is David Brophy; Proinnsías Ó Duinn, who led the orchestra from 1978 to 2003, holds the title of conductor laureate.
The RTÉ Concert Orchestra has a catalog of some 70 recordings, many made for the Marco Polo and then the Naxos labels. These range from crossover items such as RSVP: Classical Music for Entertaining to numerous film soundtracks to full-scale symphonic productions. In 2020, the orchestra backed violinist Andrew Haveron in a Chandos recording of Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto, and it returned in 2021 with a recording of Patrick Cassidy's The Proclamation, a work about the 1916 Irish Rebellion.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Archibald Joyce: Caravan Suite
RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 21 mrt. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Coleridge-Taylor: Hiawatha Overture, Petite Suite, & Other Works
RTE Concert Orchestra, Adrian Leaper
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 25 jul. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
British Light Music
RTE Concert Orchestra, Ernest Tomlinson
Klassiek - Released by Marco-Polo on 7 dec. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Spirit of Ireland
Folk - Released by Celtic Collections on 13 jul. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
N17
Tolu Makay, RTE Concert Orchestra
Pop - Released by Rubyworks Records on 19 jan. 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
German: Orchestral Works
RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 22 aug. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Docker: 3 Contrasts, Scènes de ballet & Pastiche Variations
William Davies, RTE Concert Orchestra, David Presley, Barry Knight
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 14 feb. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
british light music
RTE Concert Orchestra, Malcolm Riley, Gavin Sutherland
Klassiek - Released by Marco-Polo on 1 mei 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sullivan: Incidental Music
RTE Chamber Choir, RTE Concert Orchestra, Margaret McDonald, Andrew Penny
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 25 feb. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Another Night Before Christmas & Scrooge
RTE Concert Orchestra, Simon Callow, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Gavin Sutherland, Mia Cooper
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 31 okt. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SALTER: Ghost of Frankenstein / House of Frankenstein
RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Klassiek - Released by Marco-Polo on 1 dec. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: 49th Parallel / Story of a Flemish Farm
RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Klassiek - Released by Marco-Polo on 1 mei 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Warsaw Concerto and Other Piano Concertos from the Movies
Philip Fowke, RTE Concert Orchestra, Proinnsías O Duinn
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 2 mrt. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sullivan: Incidental Music
RTE Concert Orchestra, Emmanuel Lawler, Andrew Penny
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 7 okt. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best of Simon and Garfunkel
RTE Concert Orchestra, Richard Hayman
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 31 dec. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Remembering Duke Ellington
RTE Concert Orchestra, Richard Hayman
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 31 dec. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sullivan: L'île enchantée & Thespis (Excerpts)
RTE Concert Orchestra, Andrew Penny
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 7 okt. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Vaughan Williams (The Best Of)
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 2 jun. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
British Light Music
RTE Concert Orchestra, Adrian Leaper
Klassiek - Released by Marco-Polo on 25 jul. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tangos And Dances
Klassiek - Released by Avie Records on 1 jan. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo